"It's alarming how media is attempting to paint Hugh Hefner as a pioneer or social justice activist. Because nothing could be further from reality," she wrote on Twitter. "Hefner was not a visionary. He was a misogynist. He built an empire sexualizing women & mainstreaming stereotypes that caused irreparable damage to women's rights & our entire culture."

Hefner — a longtime advocate for same-sex marriage — published the text after Esquire rejected it, and defended his decision with: "If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society, then the reverse was wrong, too."

Women who got their start posing for Playboy's infamous pages had nothing but fond recollections of Hefner.

"I am me because of you. You taught me everything important about freedom and respect. Outside of my family you were the most important person in my life. You gave me my life," Pamela Anderson wrote in an emotional Instagram tribute.